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How to get Minecraft honeycomb, honey bottles, and blocks

Minecraft honey and honeycomb were added alongside an adorable new mob in the 2019 Buzzy Bees update, but they can be tricky to obtain without getting stung.

minecraft-honey-block

Want to know how to get Minecraft honeycomb and honey bottles? Perhaps you’ve already tried and have been stung. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there, harvesting honey from protective bees in Minecraft is a delicate business. The sweet, sugary substance and its marvelous makers were added to Minecraft back in 2019, with more uses for their creations added since, so there are plenty of reasons to become a beekeeper with your very own Minecraft apiary.

Honeycomb and honey bottles are both obtained from bee hives or nests, and both are used in crafting recipes, including Minecraft candles and honey blocks. You can even use honey as a decorative Minecraft block, so whether you’re a builder or survivalist first, you might want to know how to harvest honeycomb in Minecraft and craft these items – without upsetting any Minecraft bees.

Minecraft honey level 5: On the left of the image is an empty bee nest, on the right is a level 5 bee nest brimming with honey

How to harvest honey in Minecraft

Both honeycomb and honey bottles can be obtained from a bee hive or nest full of honey, but which you get depends on the tool you use: shears or a glass bottle.

Similar to a cauldron, a bee nest fills up in levels, up to a max of five. You can’t harvest the honey until the nest or hive is completely full, meaning five bees must enter and exit the hive. You’ll know the honey is ready to be harvested when you can see the liquid spilling from the hive, as you can see on the right hand side of the image above.

The other main thing to bear in mind when harvesting honey – be it a honey bottle or honeycomb – is that taking the efforts of their hard work will anger bees unless you calm them first. Therefore, you must place a campfire beneath a beehive or nest before breaking it, or trying to harvest it for resources.

We recommend placing the campfire in the ground with one or two air blocks between it and the hive, and then placing a carpet over it (moss carpet blends in well with grass) so the bees don’t hurt themselves.

How to harvest Minecraft honey: Honeycomb and honeycomb blocks

Minecraft honeycomb

With a campfire in place beneath the hive, using shears on a bee nest when it is at honey level five produces three honeycomb. For an automated farm, a powered dispenser with shears inside can be used to obtain the honeycomb, and also won’t anger the bees.

Honeycomb is used in a variety of crafting recipes, and is also required for waxing Minecraft copper blocks, which protects the mineral from oxidation.

Honeycomb crafting recipes

Candle

Combine a piece of honeycomb with a string to form a candle. You can then add a dye to the candle to change its color, but this must be done after first producing the candle itself.

Minecraft honey and honeycomb uses: A crafting grid shows the recipe for a Minecraft beehive

Beehive

Place three honeycomb in the center row of a 3×3 crafting grid, and fill the remaining spaces with any wooden planks to craft a beehive. A beehive is essentially the man-made alternative to a bee nest, working in the same way.

Honeycomb block

Placing four honeycomb together in a 2×2 pattern in a crafting grid will produce a Honeycomb block, which is mainly used as a decorative item since it looks pretty cool. Not sure what to make the floor of your Minecraft house from? Why not try a honeycomb block?

Minecraft honey bottle

Using an empty glass bottle on a hive or bee nest that is full of honey produces a honey bottle. You can use the honey bottle as a food item to restore six hunger, or to remove the poison status effect without removing any other status effects you might have applied. As with honeycomb, using a dispenser with glass bottles inside can produce honey bottles without angering the beehive’s residents.

Honey crafting recipes

Sugar

Simply place one honey bottle in your crafting inventory to obtain three sugar, which itself can then be used to make other food items. That said, sugar cane is much easier to farm that honey bottles, and is the better method for obtaining the sweet powder.

Honey block

A honey block is a really useful item, as we’ll get to below, and can only be crafted by placing four honey bottles together in a crafting interface.

Minecraft honey blocks: A pink-haired player stands on bright yellow honey blocks

Minecraft honey blocks

As mentioned above, Minecraft honey blocks can be crafted by using four honey bottles, and they have a wide range of uses.

  • Reduce fall damage: Honey blocks significantly reduce fall damage (by 80%).
  • Reduces speed: Sprinting across honey blocks will greatly reduce speed. This doesn’t just apply to you, but also to items skimming the side of a honey block wall.
  • Sticks to other blocks: Honey blocks stick to all other blocks, even slime.
  • Reduces jump height: You’ll still be able to grace the air, just not quite as high – you won’t be able to jump up a standard block. Put this to great use by creating traps.
  • Transportation: Yes, that’s right, you can use honey blocks to create a working conveyor belt. If a honey block is pushed by a piston, you’ll stick to the block. This also applies to mobs. Redstone engineers can even use honey blocks to produce flying machines.
  • Guiding mobs: Other Minecraft mobs aren’t a fan of walking on honey blocks, so they’ll avoid them if possible – this includes animals, monster mobs, and Minecraft village dwellers.
  • Decorative block: Of course, as with all blocks in Minecraft, honey blocks can be purely decorative! Just consider the properties above when using it in your cool Minecraft builds, though.

That’s everything we know about Minecraft honeycomb and other honey byproducts. To find the best seeds for bee biomes, make sure you’re familiar with the best Minecraft seeds, and if you’re a big bee fan, then there are plenty of Minecraft mods, texture packs, and adventure maps involving the cute insects – you can even turn every Minecraft bee into Barry B Benson, if that’s something you’d want to do.